Southern California Coastal Water Research Project

Jeffrey Cross, who has served as interim director of the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project since June, 1991, has been named to head the agency, which is a key source of information on contamination of Santa Monica Bay and other coastal waters. The agency, based in Long Beach, had been without a permanent director for a year and a half, leading to what officials said was poor morale and the resignations of nearly half of the scientific staff.

More than half of Southern California's shoreline--from Santa Barbara to Huntington Beach to San Diego--is unsafe for swimming after rainstorms because of bacteria carried to the ocean by urban runoff, according to a new scientific study released Tuesday.

More than half of Southern California's shoreline--from Santa Barbara to Huntington Beach to San Diego--is unsafe for swimming after rainstorms because of bacteria carried to the ocean by urban runoff, according to a new scientific study released Tuesday.

Jeffrey Cross, who has served as interim director of the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project since June, 1991, has been named to head the agency, which is a key source of information on contamination of Santa Monica Bay and other coastal waters. The agency, based in Long Beach, had been without a permanent director for a year and a half, leading to what officials said was poor morale and the resignations of nearly half of the scientific staff.

After several hours of public testimony, a panel of scientists decided to issue a written response to allegations that the director of the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project played down the severity of toxic contamination in Santa Monica and San Pedro bays. At the hearing, David Brown repeated charges that project director Willard Bascom distorted findings and tried to censor staff members.

Scientists agreed on Thursday that pollution in the ocean off the Southern California coast is serious but stood by earlier appraisals that the problem has been caused mainly by sewer outfalls and not old ocean floor dumps. The deep-water dumps, which were used legally from the late 1940s to the early 1970s, were studied as far back as 1971 by the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, which said at the time that it did not consider them a significant factor in ocean pollution.

A UC Irvine scientist has proposed an independent think tank called California Clean Beach Center to coordinate research on coastal pollution and Southern California's ocean systems. "We need to bring a coordinated approach to these problems," Stanley B. Grant said Tuesday. "A center would be essential in bringing together smart people from different disciplines to do research on these complex systems and to solve a critical resource issue for California."

Because some people can't resist when the waves are calling, surfers have been pushing for faster release of water quality tests so they can be sure when the water is free of sewage spills and urban runoff. In California, state law mandates that public health officials test the waters at popular beaches at least once a week during peak tourist seasons. Some local agencies test more often.

For years most of us in Southern California have known enough to stay out of the ocean after rainstorms, especially near the mouths of rivers bringing months of pollutants into the sea from far inland. But in Orange County, the dry summers too now find health officials posting signs from San Clemente to Seal Beach to warn that swimmers and surfers should stay out of polluted waters. The main cause of contamination is urban runoff.

A scientific panel Thursday cleared the director of the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project of charges that he withheld information about the severity of toxic contamination in Santa Monica and San Pedro bays. And it reprimanded the high-ranking aide who made the accusations. The panel said that it found no evidence that project director Willard Bascom "deliberately misled anyone, knowingly supplied false information or withheld information that should have been published."

Willard Newell Bascom, engineer and oceanographer who pioneered deep-sea exploration in a continuing search for tin, gold, diamonds and history and became a controversial researcher on pollution in Santa Monica and San Pedro bays, has died. He was 83. Bascom, formerly with UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography and later the Long Beach-based Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, died Sept. 20 at his home in La Jolla.

Contamination that closed Huntington Beach for more than two months last summer might have been cut short if a county task force had used some key tests earlier, a panel of experts concluded Wednesday. The panel of microbiologists, oceanographers and environmentalists concluded a three-day review of the beach closure and subsequent investigation as part of a program sponsored by USC's Sea Grant Institutional Program for environmental studies.